165 

 ME. FISHER : Yes, sir. 



DR. J. M. BACKENSTOE, of Pennsylvania: Mr. Chairman: 

 I would like to ask the speaker with reference to the treatment 

 that was given to these thousand dollar trees. 



MR. WILLIAMS : \Ye came in contact with a good many 

 interesting propositions down there, and we were visited by tree 

 doctors from the day we arrived until the day we left. When we 

 went in they implored us, and when we went out they cursed 

 us. One of the methods of treatment was that they would 

 prune oft' every infected piece of bark or branch, and cover the 

 wound with some dressing. But in the process of doing this 

 work, they used telephone linemen's clinibers. This they thought 

 was the proper thing, so they did it. We discouraged that and 

 finally broke it up. \Ye did not think that method of treatment 

 was good. Then we weiv met with the idea of throwing some 

 chemical on the ground, in order that when the rains would dis- 

 solve this material, it would enter the soil and be taken up by 

 the roots. Generally, we were met with a proposition to buy 

 some of the material and try it ourselves. It was most infre- 

 quent that we found these things were being tried by the people 

 who recommended them. Then there was the idea of introduc- 

 ing into the sap of the tree some medication. There was an- 

 other idea, with respect to watering the tree. The plan advo- 

 cated by gentlemen engaged in the business was, that they would 

 take a large chestnut tree, say three feet in diameter, and after 

 some examination conclude, just empirically, that it was suffer- 

 ing because of lack of water. That may have been entirely true ; 

 but the method of treatment was to run down a series of two-foot 

 lengths of two-inch gas pipes, or one-inch pipes, as the case 

 might be, at a short distance from the trunk of the tree, and then 

 turn a hose into the pipes and moisten the ground. I believe if 

 those pipes had been put down at the proper place, good results 

 might have followed. Water might have been introduced into 

 the feeding roots of the tree. But it is of little value to intro- 

 duce water under the tree near the trunk, where there is little 

 absorption from the ground. There were other methods of treat- 

 ment advocated. I do not remember them all now, but they 

 liave been tried out there pretty generously. Men who are 



